What Does Ethics Mean? Middle School Students' Perceptions of Science Ethics

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the ways middle school students conceptualize science ethics after engaging in non-traditional activities in a science classroom. We created a set of narrative-based learning activities around the theme of Mary Shelly's novel Frankenstein and conducted semistructured interviews with middle school students (n=15). In this paper, we report on preliminary findings from our analysis of students' conceptualization of science ethics. Our preliminary findings show that students have misconceptions in the ways they define science ethics. As ethical decisions are essential in developing students' agency and social responsibility, additional research and learning interventions are needed to investigate ways to help students develop a better understanding of science ethics.